MIDVALE — Whether high school athletes will be allowed to take the field or court in Utah this fall will likely depend on local school and health districts.
“We’re just going to have to wade through this, navigate the best we can, however they want us to do it is what we have to do,” said Craig Hammer, executive director of secondary schools for Washington County School District and the chairman of the Utah High School Activities Association’s executive committee, which met electronically Wednesday to discuss the issues associated with overseeing high school sports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t really have a choice. I don’t think any of us feel 100 percent comfortable, but we’re just going to have to wade in and try and navigate it.”
The association was forced to cancel spring sports because the state shut down schools and all associated activities. But as most of the state remains in either a low-risk (yellow) or “new normal” (green) phase and committed to reopening schools with varying degrees of precautions, association members are trying to determine if and how high schools can play and host prep sports safely.
“We’re all thinking about the start of school, and I know all of you are working on your plans,” Hammer told the group, made up mostly of high school principals and athletic directors. “I think we’re all doing the best we can with the information we have.”
The only city still in the moderate-risk (orange) phase, which limits gatherings to 50 people and has severe activity restrictions including mandates to wear masks, is Salt Lake City. But the reopening of schools looks significantly different from district to district, including proposals to have students attending classes in person one day a week, reducing school to four days each week, having five shortened days, and just opening with normal days and hours.
Wednesday’s discussion was just to raise issues and get an idea of how individual regions are approaching practices and games, especially travel, spectators and what to do if student athletes test positive for COVID-19. The final decision about whether the association will sanction fall sports comes Thursday when the board of trustees meets.
“I think it’s pretty clear you’re going to be at the mercy, and I’m not sure that’s the right way to phrase it, but essentially that’s what it is, you’re going to be at the mercy of local health departments,” Hammer said. “And that’s probably going to be your biggest challenge.”
Executive committee members hope the association’s board of trustees will approve a plan to play fall sports as scheduled, even if that means making mid-season adjustments and modifications for any COVID-related issues.
A subcommittee that looks at competition issues has put forth some recommendations, including daily temperature checks for those schools in yellow and weekly for those in green, but as one athletic director pointed out, there is no uniform way to deal with positive cases, either individually or as a team.
Hammer, who said Washington County has hosted a number of baseball and softball events, suggested some of these issues would have to be dealt with as they arise. Most principals agreed, including whether student athletes might transfer from schools that can’t or choose not to play to schools and districts with fewer restrictions. Two different members said they have had calls from families in California and Nevada contemplating whether they should move so their children can participate in in-person school and associated activities and sports.
One of the most difficult issues is whether it would be better to start the season later, allowing those like Salt Lake City School District schools to possibly move into less restrictive phases of the governor’s guidelines, or try and shorten the season as cold and flu season could make any COVID-19 outbreak worse.
Highland High football coach Brody Benson said he’s not sure what the answers are, but it’s difficult for him to tell his student athletes they can’t play when their friends in neighboring schools will be competing.
“I am just having a real hard time swallowing that I’m going to have to stand up in front of my kids and (explain why) Skyline (which is) 2.7 miles away, they get to play but we don’t,” Benson said. “And in West Valley, where they’ve had 200 more positive cases than Salt Lake, they get to practice, they get to put on the helmet and pads, but we don’t because we’re in orange. I’m just having a hard time with that.”
Benson said the Salt Lake City School District has told administrators that “as long as we’re in orange, we can’t play. And I don’t see our mayor taking us out of the orange anytime soon.”
Tom Sherwood, principal at Brighton High and a member of the executive committee, said the issues created by different levels of involvement could cause a ripple effect, including mass transfers.
“If the board doesn’t come up with a solution, it could get a little messy,” said Sherwood, who also cautioned association leaders to consider the adverse impacts for youth who are forbidden to play because their communities are harder hit by the outbreak.
“We can’t let (these kids) miss out just because of where they live,” he said.
Brady Fails, principal of Beaver High, said they have the opposite problem. His students didn’t get a spring season in sports, and yet the county didn’t see a single case of COVID-19 until last month.
“We need to try to move forward,” he said. “It can’t be normal, but the kids deserve as normal an experience as we can give them.”
Still others wondered what might happen if a school refused to travel to “hotbeds” of outbreak like Summit, Salt Lake or San Juan, and what might happen if a school has an outbreak during the season. Association executive director Rob Cuff said the staff is recommending they not penalize any school for being unable or unwilling to travel or play because of the unique circumstances created by the pandemic.
Hammer said some communities are still recovering from canceling school and all spring activities and what those ramifications meant in the lives of individuals and the impact that has on the community.
“The hardest part of this is trying to put a plan together, trying to deal with gray areas that keep moving on us,” Hammer said. “But I think all of us, we’re pretty much committed to finding a way and tackling some of these hurdles as we go along. We may have to have executive committee meetings every other week by Zoom if we have to tackle issues. ... But we’re going to do everything we can to give these kids an experience, and to do our best to deal with problems as they come up.”